Evaluation of public consultations and citizens’ participation in 2015 Better Regulation Agenda of the EU and the need for a deliberative e-rulemaking initiative in the EU

ABSTRACT

This paper connects and disentangles three interrelated concepts: citizens’ participation; e-rulemaking (in a deliberative environment) and effective policymaking at the EU level. We critically evaluate public participation under the revamped 2015 ‘Better Regulation Agenda’ by focusing on the public consultations tool; examining it through the lens of deliberative democratic legitimacy; and assessing its potential to be more deliberative following the legitimacy evaluation framework of Schmidt [2013. Democracy and legitimacy in the European Union revisited: Input, output and ‘throughput’. Political Studies, 61(1), 2–22]. The paper employs an innovative theoretical approach, which blends deliberative democracy, e-rulemaking with EU studies insights. Furthermore, it introduces a new legitimacy criterion we call ‘functional legitimacy’ which refers to an overarching principle and evaluative framework that should govern e-rulemaking initiatives from their design through implementation and evaluation. We examine the preconditions for e-rulemaking at the EU level on the principles of transparency, inclusiveness and evidence-based policymaking.

KEYWORDS:

• Deliberative democracy
• e-rulemaking
• EU
• Better Regulation Agenda
• democratic deficit
• legitimacy
• legislative politics
• public consultation

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the PSA Annual International Conference, Nottingham, 15–17 April 2019.

Notes

1 https://regulatorystudies.columbian.gwu.edu/files/downloads/US%20eRulemaking%20challenges.pdf.

2 Perez et al. (2018) for example take a broad view of e-rulemaking which covers both national law, secondary rules and soft law.

3 https://www.regulations.gov.

4 https://www.sortitionfoundation.org/what_is_sortition.

5 e.g. the www.regulations.gov (USA) and opengov.gr (Greece).

6 https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-making-process/planning-and-proposing-law/better-regulation-why-and-how_en.

7 At the time the paper was revised the new Von Der Leyen Commission has taken office and the Better Regulation Agenda is under the 6th priority ‘A new Push for European Democracy’ https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/new-push-european-democracy_en.

8 https://ec.europa.eu/info/about-european-commission/service-standards-and-principles/transparency/transparency-register_en.

9 https://www.betterregwatch.eu. In the aims it is mentioned that:

we are united in our concern that the European Commission’s ‘Better Regulation’ agenda does not further public interest, but rather aims to weaken or neglect essential regulations protecting workers, consumers, citizens and the environment.

10 http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ (currently inactive).

11 As of April 2019.

Additional information

Funding

The project ‘PEREDEP’ (‘Promoting E-rulemaking in the EU through Deliberative Procedures’) has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 798502. Ideas and opinions expressed in the paper belong to the authors and do not represent the funding agency.